In the century (give or take) since the development of the liquid-fueled internal combustion engine and vehicles based thereupon, a vast supporting infrastructure of fuel production, refinement, distribution and sales has grown up. Some portions of the infrastructure are very familiar to residents of industrialized countries: almost everyone has at least a general understanding of how petroleum-based fuels are extracted, refined, delivered to local filling stations, pumped into vehicles and paid for. However, there are many non-standard niches in the infrastructure—for example, for unusual fuels such as hydrogen, propane, liquid natural gas, kerosene or alcohol—and for delivery outside standard retail fueling stations.
One significant, if unfamiliar, niche is fleet fueling: the provision of fuels to a fleet of commonly-owned and -operated vehicles, where an individual vehicle “fill-up” may not correspond with a single commercial transaction. Instead, the fleet operator may purchase a large quantity of fuel and deliver it to its vehicles through one or more private pumping stations. Nevertheless, even if these pumps do not perform an individual commercial transaction (e.g., by accepting cash or by submitting a credit-card authorization) they often must verify that the vehicle is authorized to obtain fuel from the station, or report fuel dispensing so that replacement stock can be ordered and delivered before the tanks run dry.
A system that provides improved connectivity and reduced cost for non-consumer/non-retail fueling stations may be of significant value in this field.